‘Water being stolen and channelled to Punjab’

UBAURO: Water is being stolen from the Seehar Canal in Sindh and distributed to Sadiqabad in Rahimyar Khan, Punjab, claimed protesting villagers on Wednesday. Stressing that the issue has been ignored for a very long time, the protestors added that, due to this theft, the flow of water from Seehar Canal to the farmlands in Sindh had slowed down.

Water flows into the Seehar Canal from the Guddu Barrage and is then channelled to Punjab through watercourses that have been illegally constructed at the Rainee Canal in Sindh with the help of corrupt irrigation officials, people in Mirpur Mathelo and Ghotki claimed.

The construction of Rainee Canal started in October 2002 and was to be completed by 2007. This project was meant to irrigate land along the Guddu Barrage command. The Rainee Canal was also meant to store water during the flood season.

The project, however, has yet to be completed and the Rainee Canal is instead being used as a site for the construction of illegal watercourses, it was revealed.

It was also discovered that the water is being stolen from a number of places across the canal, including 38AL, 38BL and 38CL.

An illegal watercourse also exists near the Naseer Dhondhro village, it was revealed.

“Water from Seehar canal is stolen round the clock. Irrigation officials at Mirpur Mathelo are given large sums of money on a monthly basis to ensure this,” villagers at Naseer Dhondhro said, while appealing to the Sindh government to take notice of the theft of water. Action must be taken against corrupt officials in Sindh who are involved in this theft, they added.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 10^th,2010